Mick at Four Months
Today I’m going to brave the taboo topic of getting angry at your dog. Nowadays, if you so much as breathe a word against your dog, people look at you like you’re Michael Vick. And take one look at my dog Mick and you’d wonder what is wrong with me that I could ever get angry at him?
Let me begin with a quote from one of my favorite women, Beryl Markham. In West With the Night, she asked upon the birth of a foal, “Will it breathe when it is meant to breathe? Will it have the anger to feed and to grow and to demand its needs?”
Mick at Eighteen Months
Because I am above all things anxious to be a “nice woman,” I’ve often wondered, do I have the anger to demand my needs?
Is that what anger’s for?
Few places is anger more taboo right now than when it’s directed at your dog. And yet, let’s be honest. Dogs can be infuriating. Read more . . .
